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Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

I don't think you'll ever see the trend reverse in the USA, sadly. That's why so much talent is coming through places like the Dominican Republic now. Their kids aren't sitting around texting each other and playing games on smartphones all day.

Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

Here's what I don't get: "Blacks" are ~13% of the U.S. population. What is MLB's target % of blacks in professional baseball?

If you look at just American-born players in MLB, blacks are almost perfectly proportionately represented. That Hispanic and Asian players from overseas are "taking jobs" from Americans is the source of the ethnicity "problem", if you want to think of this way.

And if you want to suggest that baseball should look like professional football or basketball, I'd suggest a whole different kind of racism is going on.

Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.

Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

The Keown article brought up the subject of youth baseball where you have travel teams and that makes the cost of it somewhat prohibitive for African American youths. However, don't AAU teams in basketball pretty much do the same thing? Is there a difference?

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Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

Originally Posted by Chip R

The Keown article brought up the subject of youth baseball where you have travel teams and that makes the cost of it somewhat prohibitive for African American youths. However, don't AAU teams in basketball pretty much do the same thing? Is there a difference?

Big difference is the shoe companies foot the bill for a lot of the AAU stuff because some of those guys end up making them a lot of money down the road. I think in baseball a lot of that falls on the kids and their families. That is a valid point the article makes.

Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

Originally Posted by BluegrassRedleg

Big difference is the shoe companies foot the bill for a lot of the AAU stuff because some of those guys end up making them a lot of money down the road. I think in baseball a lot of that falls on the kids and their families. That is a valid point the article makes.

Right. If MLB has a player development problem whereby they are losing talent to other sports, they should do something about it.

But the ethnicity angle makes it seem like a racial issue when it's actually a socio-economic one. And setting the optics aside, thinking it's a racial issue when it's not really a racial issue might suggest the wrong "solution".

Just wait, MLB is going to come to the conclusion that the problem is that the sport isn't culturally appealing to urban kids and will tell teams to run more promotions with hip hop and rap artists. And as a league, they'll do a little more marketing. And the reason they'll come to that conclusion is because it's basically free and makes it look like they're doing something.

As you point out, the real solution involves 10s of millions of dollars funding traveling leagues and there's no way the owners spring for that out of their own pockets.

Last edited by RedsManRick; 04-19-2013 at 08:52 PM.

Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.

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The poor and lower middle class have gotten poorer. Black people are more likely to be lower income. A baseball game takes a lot of infrastructure. 18 kids need gloves, a field, bats, balls, helmets, etc. Basketball is a lot more accessible.

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Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

Originally Posted by Crumbley

The poor and lower middle class have gotten poorer. Black people are more likely to be lower income. A baseball game takes a lot of infrastructure. 18 kids need gloves, a field, bats, balls, helmets, etc. Basketball is a lot more accessible.

I agree in general, but poor people have always played baseball for years and years going back to stickball in inner cities and backyard baseball in the burbs. It's got to be more than that. You can get a glove and a bat for less than a pair of basketball shoes these days.

Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

The drop from a high of 20%-27% to the current 8% (approx) is alarming, and I don't really have a problem with it being "seriously looked into." It's not nearly as popular of a sport as it used to be in the AA community, but why exactly?

Any brand/business takes losing such a large portion of a demographic over time seriously, especially when so many of their greatest players over time have been black. They investigate it, hire people to improve it.

It's not as if a racial quota is being implemented, but I sense that is where fearful folks go to immediately, without taking the issue more seriously.

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Re: MLB looking into lack of African-American players

Originally Posted by BluegrassRedleg

I agree in general, but poor people have always played baseball for years and years going back to stickball in inner cities and backyard baseball in the burbs. It's got to be more than that. You can get a glove and a bat for less than a pair of basketball shoes these days.

I wonder if part of it is that you need more than just a glove and a bat to play baseball as a kid today. I didn't grow up in a city playing stickball but I did play a lot of backyard baseball as a kid many, many decades ago. All we needed was a ball, a couple of bats and a few gloves- if a kid didn't have a glove he borrowed one when the opposing team was at bat. We sometimes used rocks for bases, had no adults to coach or umpire, and played in fields with no fences or clearly marked baselines. Obviously we didn't have uniforms.
My kids didn't play baseball like that. The version they played, with uniforms, pitching machines, equipment, organization, etc., was much more expensive and perhaps less accessible. Pick up basketball is easier to do.

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